The Sandy Hook School library was a hotbed of activity for both students and faculty alike. As such, there is plenty of evidence that shows the area in use between 2008 – the year con men such as James Fetzer falsely claim the school was closed – and 2012. Some of this evidence has already been shared and discussed in earlier entries. For example, when children’s author Patricia Polacco visited the school on September 15th, 2011 (covered in “Sandy Hook Elementary Was Open”, parts six and seven), she signed copies of her books in the library, as seen in this photograph from the 2011-2012 Scrapbook:
Note that both Mrs. Polacco and school principal Dawn Hochsprung are both wearing the very same outfits seen in the following Polaroid (also taken in the library – note the SMART Board used as a backdrop), posted to Mrs. Polacco’s Facebook page on June 15th, 2016:
Also included in Sandy Hook Elementary Was Open, Part Seven is this photo from April 26th, 2012, showing Sandy Hook School students using the library’s SMART Technologies system (which includes a Unifi projector unavailable in 2008) to Skype with children’s author and illustrator Tomie DePaola:
Originally shared in my entry on Dawn Hochsprung’s Twitter feed, this photograph shows the school’s teachers participating in an “Appy Hour” on the morning of December 4th, 2012:
In addition to Twitter’s timestamping (which I suppose is only reliable when making uneducated claims alleging foreknowledge of the shooting), there are a couple of items actually located within Mrs. Hochsprung’s photograph which would make it impossible for it to have been taken in 2008: first of all – as seen in the Tomie DePaola photo above – there’s the Unifi projector at the heart of the presentation, again commercially unavailable in 2008. Then of course there are the iPads, the very first of which was not released until April of 2010.
There’s further evidence in this second photo of the same event, published in the December 7th, 2012 edition of The Newtown Bee:
Source: http://photos.newtownbee.com/Journalism/NEW-Photos-from-issue-dated/i-JLqBjdt/A
If you look on the rear wall, you’ll see a poster for “Dying To Meet You (43 Old Cemetery Road)” by Kate Klise, which was not released until 2010.
According to “Kindles Now Available For Checkout At Sandy Hook School”, published in the December 16th, 2011 edition of The Newtown Bee, Sandy Hook’s library became the very first in the district to loan Amazon Kindle e-readers out to their students (although the program was limited to fourth grade students). The article included the following photograph:
“Sandy Hook School fourth graders, from left, Colton Procaccini, Henry Wishneski, Devin O’Connell, and Emmanuel Wilford were the first students to take out Amazon Kindles from their school’s library on Monday, December 12.”
Source: http://photos.newtownbee.com/Journalism/Photos-from-the-issue-59/i-hTJHpqX/A
A little less than a month later, on January 10th, 2012, the Danbury News Times also wrote about the school’s Kindle trailblazing program. In addition to a quote from principal Dawn Hochsprung, the article – titled “Kindle Program Ignites Reading” – also includes three images taken from inside the library. One of these photos clearly shows that the Kindles in use at Sandy Hook at the third generation Kindles, otherwise known as the “Kindle Keyboard”:
The “Kindle Keyboard” first shipped in August of 2010. As such, it could not have possibly been photographed in 2008. So do these nitwits really expect anyone in their right mind to believe that a group of random children were marched into the abandoned-yet-somehow-still-fully-furnished-and-stocked Sandy Hook library in order to pose with a handful of Kindles a full two years after it was closed due – according to them – “asbestos contamination”? All for the benefit of a couple of quick write-ups in local papers? How does even a single sane person buy into this nonsense? It’s preposterous.
While they lack the physical evidence found in the preceding material, the following photographs can be confirmed (via published dates or photographic metadata) as having been taken in the Sandy Hook library at various points between September of 2010 and February of 2011.
There were some big changes throughout the Newtown school system leading up to the 2010 school year. Among them, veteran educator Dawn Hochsprung replaced the retiring Donna Page as principal of Sandy Hook Elementary School. Hochsprung’s experience is highlighted in the an article published by The Danbury News Times on June 14th, 2010 (“Newtown Hires Two New Elementary Principals”):
Hochsprung, a Woodbury resident, comes to Newtown with 12 years of administrative experience, half of which was spent as an assistant principal in the Danbury school system, according to a press release from Superintendent of Schools Janet Robinson.
Hochsprung worked at Rogers Park Middle School from 1998 to 2003 and at Danbury High School in 2003-04.
She comes to Newtown after spending three years as principal at Mitchell Elementary School in Region 14. Before that, she was principal of Bethlehem Elementary School from 2004 to 2007.
She received a bachelor’s degree in special education from Central Connecticut State University in 1993, a master’s in special education from Southern Connecticut State University in 1997, and a sixth-year degree in educational leadership from Southern in 1998.
Dawn Hochsprung’s interview in front of Newtown’s Board of Education is discussed in the minutes for the Board’s June 8th, 2010 meeting:
MOTION: Mr. Hart moved to go into executive session to interview the candidates for the elementary principal positions and invited Dr. Robinson and Christopher Geissler and Dawn Hochsprung individually for the purpose of interviewing for the Sandy Hook School principal and Middle Gate School principal. Mr. Lagana seconded. Vote: 5 ayes
Item 2 – Executive Session
The Board left executive session at 9:58 p.m.
Item 3 – Public Session
MOTION: Mr. Hart moved that the Board of Education appoint Christopher Geissler as Middle Gate School principal to begin on or about July 1, 2010 with a salary per the administrators’ contract. Mr. Lagana seconded. Vote: 5 ayes
MOTION: Mr. Lagana move that the Board of Education appoint Dawn Hochsprung as Sandy Hook School principal on or about July 1, 2010 with a salary per the Administrators’ contract. Mr. Hart seconded. Vote: 5 ayes
You can also find a PDF of the meeting minutes online here.
Shortly after Mrs. Hochsprung was officially hired, Sandy Hook assistant principal, Barbara Gasparine, left the school to become the principal of Head O’ Meadow. From a July 14th, 2010 article published on The Newtown Patch (“Sandy Hook School’s Assistant Principal Named To Top Post At Head O’ Meadow”):
Barbara Gasparine, a Woodbridge resident who has served as assistant principal at Sandy Hook School for the past three years, has been appointed principal of Head O’Meadow School following Tuesday night’s Board of Education meeting.
The minutes from this Board of Education meeting, which took place on July 13th, 2010, can be found online here. Here is the relevant portion:
Another article from The Newtown Patch – “Newtown Welcomes 3 New Elementary Principals”, published on September 12th, 2010 – outlines some of the district’s changes and profiles a few of the new additions, including Dawn Hochsprung:
Dawn Lafferty Hochsprung, Sandy Hook School
Dawn Lafferty Hochsprung and new assistant principal Jenn Sinal spent time during the first week mixing and mingling in the Sandy Hook School cafeteria, making the most of every opportunity to get to know the students, and in turn become familiar faces at the school.
Hochsprung describes the SHS students as “enthusiastic and happy to be here.”
She said she is enjoying the opportunity to learn about Newtown and specifically the Sandy Hook community, since she previously lived and worked in Woodbury.
The school secretary, Joanne Didonato, “is a huge support in helping me to navigate my new environment,” Hochsprung said in an e-mail. “She has a wealth of information about our community and families.”
While many teachers would wait for the new administrator to set expectations, Hochsprung said she has been impressed with the high standards of teaching and learning.
“These sentiments were solidified for me when one of our grade-level teams said to me after our first professional development, ‘We can’t wait to show you what we’ve got.'” Hochsprung said.
The Newtown Patch article also includes the following photo of Hochsprung and new assistant principal, Jennifer Sinal, posing in the school library:
The addition of Jennifer Sinal was also new for 2010 (that’s a lot of new hires for an abandoned school, don’t you think?), and is discussed in an article from the September 10th, 2010 edition of The Newtown Bee (“Jennifer Sinal Named Sandy Hook School Assistant Principal”):
“As an administrator over the summer I got to see a little bit more of that,” she said. “There is something very special about making it happen, but there is also something very special about creating a culture where it is encouraged to happen. This school is a fantastic school. It has a wonderful reputation, and I know that I am going to learn a lot here.”
Assistant Superintendent Linda Gejda and Ms Gellis, Ms Sinal said, both helped to cultivate her administrative career. Everyone, including new Sandy Hook School Principal Dawn Lafferty Hochsprung, has been wonderful since Ms Sinal began her position, and she said her door is open if anyone wishes to visit her.
Included with the article is the following photo of Ms. Sinal, also taken in the school library (notice that her hair and clothing are different, indicating these two photos were taken on different days):
Source: http://photos.newtownbee.com/Journalism/Photos-from-the-issue/i-vXvrHQ6/A
That’s two photographs and four articles from three different established sources (The Danbury News Times, The Newtown Bee, and The Newtown Patch) documenting staffing changes at an obviously open and active elementary school. Stack those up against the precisely zero articles from zero established sources that Fetzer and Halbig have presented in order to prove their claim that the school was closed.
And yet there’s still more. From an article titled “Sandy Hook School Student Book Club Begins With ‘No Talking'”, published on May 7th, 2010:
“Students who attended the first meeting of Sandy Hook School’s new book discussion group talked about No Talking by Andrew Clements with library/media specialist Bev Bjorklund, left, and second grade teacher Dawn Ford, right, in the school’s library on Friday, April 30.”
Source: http://photos.newtownbee.com/Journalism/Photos-from-the-week-of-May-7/i-LL8dxzr/A
“Sandy Hook School Students Learn About Chinese Culture”, published in the February 11th, 2011 edition of The Newtown Bee:
“Sandy Hook School parent volunteer Wan Huffman taught students about mythological animals from Chinese culture on Friday, February 4.”
Source: http://photos.newtownbee.com/Journalism/Photos-from-the-issue-19/i-z8JtBKK/A
“Sandy Hook School first grader Bear Nikitchyuk created a “dragon that bites” after learning about mythological animals in Chinese culture.”
Source: http://photos.newtownbee.com/Journalism/Photos-from-the-issue-19/i-g6RXzDB/A
Finally, in September of 2012, a woman by the name of Katherine Mauro provided an inside look at the school and in particular its library for a college class assignment. Her detailed site visit describes an active, organized, and advanced library, full of busy students. Katherine says of the library:
I have never seen a Library Media Center run so smoothly, with such excitement, respect and collaboration.
All of this would certainly be very strange for a school that had been closed for four whole years. But how do we know that Katherine was actually at Sandy Hook (as opposed to some other school) and that she was there in September of 2012, mere months before the shooting? The answer lies within the four photos of the library included in her entry. Not only do they match what we’ve already seen of the library here and elsewhere on the site, but inspecting their Exif data provides substantial corroborating evidence, such as the date that they were taken and even GPS coordinates. As you can see, this metadata shows that these photos were taken just after 9AM on September 21st, 2012:
And the GPS location (in decimal degrees) is 41; 25; 10.799999999988259 latitude, 73; 16; 43.2000000000116557 longitude:
Plugging these coordinates into https://gps-coordinates.org not only converts them to DMS but shows the location as – you guessed it – the site of Sandy Hook Elementary School on Dickenson Drive in Newtown, CT:
As expected, entering the DMS GPS coordinates into Google Earth produces the same exact result. In fact, if you slide the date of the imagery to 2012, you’ll end up just outside of the school’s library:
For more in the “Sandy Hook Elementary Was Open” series, please read:
Part One: The Lobby
Part Two: The Obstinate Pen
Part Three: Holiday Decorations And Calendars
Part Four: SMART Technologies
Part Five: Dawn Hochsprung’s Twitter Feed
Part Six: The 2011-2012 Scrapbook
Part Seven: Children’s Authors Visit Sandy Hook
Part Eight: Charitable Causes
Part Nine: The Library
Part Ten: 92 More Photos From Sandy Hook School
Part Eleven: Over 195 Articles Referencing Sandy Hook School, Written Between 2008-2012
Part Twelve: The Glass Display Cases
Part Thirteen: Google Earth
Part Fourteen: The November 2012 Scholastic Book Fair
Part Fifteen: Sandy Hook School Enrollment For 2008-2017
Part Sixteen: School Documents From 2008-2012
The book “No Talking” was published June 2009… that would not be 2008
I looked this up when I originally published this entry, and Goodreads says that it was published in June of 2007. Amazon says June of 2009, but it also says that’s the reprint version.
Why did Sandy Hook have two Principals for the 2010-11 year?
Barbara Gasparine
Dawn Hochsprung
They didn’t. I’m not entirely sure why the photo caption says that she’s the school Principal, to be honest. It could be a mistake (maybe they meant to write Assistant Principal), or maybe she acted as Principal temporarily while Dawn Hochsprung got comfortable after taking the school over from Donna Pagé, who had retired over the summer. Barbara had worked as Assistant Principal under Donna Pagé for three years, but left Sandy Hook to become principal of Head O’Meadow School in 2010.
The Sandy Hook 2010-2011 handbook only lists one principal, and that is Dawn Hochsprung.
I think you are talking about the bus photo with Gasparine and Jennifer Meyers. Meyers was the new leader teacher in 2010 at Head o’meadow. The Bee got the school wrong.
http://patch.com/connecticut/newtown/first-day-of-school-goes-smooth-for-most
Yeah, that photo is featured in another entry. I’m not sure why Sobriquet posted their comment here as Barbara is referred to as “assistant principal” here, which is accurate.
Anyway, thank you for the clarification. That makes total sense. I’ll remove the bus photo from the “101 Photos” entry.
You have a photograph that shows Bev Bjorklund as the librarian for Sandy Hook Elementary. Bev Bjorklund was never the librarian for Sandy Hook Library. She is the librarian for Head O’Meadow Elementary school and has been for some time.
Yvonne Cech was the librarian for Sandy Hook Elementary at that time. It mentions this on her facebook page as well. The author Tomie DePaola also mentions that he has a skype session with the students in April of 2012 and that the librarian Yvonne Cech had called him in regards to this. I have to wonder why or how, given the importance of this school and its history, so many names and dates and photos are continuously being misidentified.
Which photo are you referring to? The only mention of Bev Bjorklund is in the caption that accompanies the “No Talking” photo. And that caption reads:
The caption does not refer to her as the librarian for Sandy Hook Elementary. It describes her as a “library/media specialist”, which is entirely accurate. Nowhere does it say that she is a SHES employee. You can see it for yourself on the Newtown Bee’s website. I’ve published it here verbatim, and there is nothing incorrect or misleading about it. Am I missing something?
You have just proven my point. A library media specialist IS a librarian, I have been one!! You are now arguing semantics because there is no other conclusion that anyone can come to other than this is the school’s librarian otherwise why would she be there? You would have a librarian from a different school conducting activities and classes for Sandy Hook and not the Sandy Hook librarian? That makes no sense whatsoever which is why one has to question everything involved in the Sandy Hook narrative.
Bev Bjorklund
June 2010 · ·
Left Job at Sandy Hook Elementary School
June 2010 — Library Media Specialist
Yvonne Cech
2005 · ·
Started Working at Sandy Hook Elementary School, Sandy Hook, CT
2005 — School Library Media Specialist
MONDAY, DECEMBER 17, 2012
Thoughts and Prayers
Our thoughts and prayers are of the Sandy Hook Elementary School community.
We have a small connection to the school. Earlier this year, a parent, from the school, who had grown up in New London, NH, wrote to ask if Tomie would visit the school in person or via Skype.
Tomie offered to Skype with some classrooms. The librarian, Yvonne Cech, arranged for him to meet some of her students this past March. They were Tomie’s first Skype sessions and the school’s first Skype session with an author.
POSTED BY TOMIE’S BLOG BLOGGER AT 10:04 AM
These are direct cut and pastes from facebook and from author Tomie DePaola’s online calendar. Yvonne Cech began working as Sandy Hook Elementary School’s librarian in 2005 as you can see. She was still the librarian in 2012 as you can see from the Tomie DePaola post. So how is it that Bev Bjorkland was librarian in 2010 if Yvonne Cech was still there? Two school librarians for a population of only about 400? Hardly, most schools can barely support one librarian. This is the kind of thing that is blowing the lid off of your continuous deception about what was really going on at Sandy Hook. You have woven yourself a tangled web that you will not be able to get out ot.
Bev Bjorklund absolutely was the Sandy Hook Elementary School library in May of 2010, when this photo was taken. I’ll demonstrate this shortly, but let’s rewind a bit first, because in your original comment, you made the following claim:
Emphasis mine, of course. But this was your second sentence. However, in your most recent reply, you have pasted what I can only assume is a sliver of Bev Bjorklund’s resume (source unknown, of course):
Right off the bat, we have an issue. First you say that she never worked there, but then you say that she did, leaving at the end of the 2009-2010 school year. So which one is it? Obviously she couldn’t have left in June of 2010 if she never worked there in the first place. It’s like saying I quit my job at NASA. And if you’re going to change course yet again and say that she never worked there, then you’re going to have to provide some proof. That’s how this works.
Now I initially made a mistake – and I’m man enough to admit that, as I have in the past – in relying solely on the information contained within the photo’s caption, which absolutely does not reveal that Bev was an employee at Sandy Hook School; just that she is a “library/media specialist”. It never mentions her place of employment. It can probably be inferred, but my original point was that they do not name her as the school’s librarian. I certainly could have and maybe should have dug a bit deeper in order to find out exactly where she worked in May of 2010, but that information seemed irrelevant to me at the time, especially when considering the mountain of existing evidence that shows the school was open, the library was active, and that the shooting happened. So who cares where the Newtown Bee photographed her? I mean, besides total whackadoos. But since you want to continue down this path, fine, let’s take a look.
Was Bev ever the librarian at Sandy Hook School? You claimed that she was not. According to her Facebook page, she absolutely was. Her intro includes the following:
And this has been corroborated by the Newtown Bee, on a number of occasions dating back to at least 2003:
Source. Published October 3rd, 2003.
Source. Published June 22nd, 2007.
Source. Published January 8th, 2010.
This is the article that accompanies the photo in question. It confirms that Bev Bjorklund was Sandy Hook’s librarian at the time. It was published on May 7th, 2010. If she did in fact leave the school in June of that year – the end of the school year – then there’s absolutely incorrect or suspicious about this photo, its caption, or the accompanying article. Remember, May comes before June.
And here are two more from the 2009-2010 school year:
Source. Published May 7th, 2010.
Source. Published May 28th, 2010.
That’s six times that the Newtown Bee referred to Bev Bjorklund as Sandy Hook’s librarian. I wouldn’t be surprised if I missed a couple of results. And you’re going to tell me that she never worked there? Based on what?
Yvonne Cech, on the other hand, is only mentioned on the Newtown Bee’s website twice before the 2010-2011 (which would have been after Bev Bjorklund left for Head O’ Meadow). The first, oldest reference (from November of 2005) is irrelevant to this discussion. But the second article – which has already been posted above – discusses Yvonne’s role at the Sandy Hook’s library. It’s from June 22nd, 2007, and it reads:
Well, would you look at that? “Ms Bjorklund and her staff“. Yvonne Cech worked under Bev Bjorklund until the latter’s departure in 2010.
Now Tomie’s blog entry – which I believe I’ve already linked to in this entry – is also irrelevant in this case as he Skyped with students in April of 2012, after Bev had already moved on to Head O’ Meadow. So of course he does not name her as the school’s librarian. Why would he? She was gone.
And I haven’t even covered the evidence found within the Sandy Hook Connection. I scanned through twenty-three of the school’s weekly newsletters from 2009 and Bev Bjorklund is mentioned – and almost always as a member of the library staff – six times. Here’s an example, taken from the May 28th, 2009 edition:
And you’re going to tell me that she never worked there? Or that she left prior to 2005? It’s just ridiculous. You’re just flat-out wrong. And all of this nonsense about “blowing the lid” off of anything, or “questioning everything involved in the Sandy Hook narrative” just because you can’t Google, or because you don’t personally believe that a public school in a well-to-do neighborhood couldn’t possibly have two whole librarians back in 2010, is just laughable. Give me a break.
Ms. Bjorkland is the one who claimed she was a librarian at Sandy Hook and had left that position in June of 2010. I am saying she is not being truthful. They had a librarian from 2005 to 2012 named Yvonne Cech. That is documented in several places. You are the one who is claiming two different things. First you have her at the SH library with SH students, then told me you were not saying that she was the librarian. Now you are saying she absolutely was. I am done with this ridiculous bunch of people. You are all a bunch of liars and you have been outed for what you pulled on the unsuspecting American public. Only not all of us are buying your load of BS. In fact more and more every day are realizing what really went on in Newtown CT. That is the whole reason you started this disinformation campaign with the ridiculous name whose main intent was to mock anyone who dared claim that is what these people were. And they were!!! When the fire gets too hot you start the disinformation campaign, the lies, the insults, the questioning of anyone’s mental stability if they dare to question the official story. I don’t know how you people even sleep at night. You use children in a sick game of deception, along with the Obama administration, and other government agencies and you know you can count on the media to protect the lies as they always do. You have already been taken to court over this and when the truth started to come out you doubled down on anyone who refused to repeat the lies. May God help all of you and may God have mercy on a nation that has gone so far to the dark side it may never see the light again.
And that’s absolutely correct. She was a librarian at Sandy Hook, and she was there until the end of the 2009-2010 school year, which came after the library photo in question was taken. So the photo’s caption is correct. I have proven that, and I have shared my sources (The Newtown Bee, The Sandy Hook Connection, and Mrs. Bjorklund’s own Facebook). You are the one who claimed that she was not – that she never worked there – yet you have not provided any evidence of your claim. And rather than try and dredge some up (an impossible task), you’ve suddenly decided that you’ve had enough. How convenient for you.
I have seen no proof that Yvonne Cech worked in the library prior to 2007. Maybe she did, I don’t know. If you have any sources, share them, much I like have done. That’s what this site is all about, but thus far you have contributed nothing.
What I do know is that there was a period in which Mrs. Bjorklund and Yvonne Cech worked at the library together. Multiple people worked in the library, simultaneously. This is corroborated by this article in the Newtown Bee, which again states:
Please read that as many times as you need to. Ms. Bjorklund and her staff. Her staff included Yvonne Cech. They worked together in the Sandy Hook library. It’s right there, right in front of your face. I’m not sure how else to explain this to you at this point. You were supposedly a librarian yourself, yet you seem to struggle with reading comprehension.
Let’s recap what has transpired here thus far: I posted a picture of Bev Bjorklund hosting an event in the Sandy Hook library, with Sandy Hook students, in order to further prove that the school was open after 2008. You showed up and claimed that the photo was suspect as Mrs. Bjorklund never worked at Sandy Hook. Those are your words exactly, and anyone can scroll up a bit and see them for themselves. I said that the photo’s caption did not describe her as an employee of Sandy Hook School, which is accurate; it does not. I certainly didn’t say that she never worked there or even that she wasn’t working there in May of 2010. I didn’t know. I did not do any research into the matter; I simply reiterated what the photo’s caption said. This was a mistake on my part and I admitted to that because, unlike yourself, I can freely admit when I’m wrong, or when I haven’t done my due diligence. And I think that I more than made up for it when I provided source after source after source that (correctly) describes Bev Bjornlund as one of the librarians at Sandy Hook Elementary School through the 2009-2010 school year, at times working alongside Yvonne Cech.
Ah, yes… the online equivalent to sticking your fingers in your ears and singing at the top of your lungs. Ignore all of the evidence I’ve provided, take your ball, and go home. It’s such much easier than admitting you’re wrong, isn’t it? What a coward. Grow up.
False. I started this site after I was challenged to debunk the entirety of James Fetzer’s garbage book, which I’ve done, and I’ve done well. I’ve told this story before. Beyond that, the site continues to exist as a way to provide balance to all of the evil that people like you put out into the world, mostly through barely literate websites, full of twaddle, that choke the Internet like weeds. It’s not here to change your mind, because people like you are too far gone. Trying to speak directly to you is not worth my time. It’s more for the people who are risk of buying into this lunacy. And, despite what your damaged mind may believe, their numbers are not growing. I’d ask you for sources, but we both know you’re not going to provide any.
Holy shit, what are you even talking about? Get help, lady.
Yvonne Cech is the head librarian at the Brookfield Public Library in Brookfield, CT, which is down the road from Sandy Hook. Call her: 203-775-6241.